The eLearning Dilemma in Aged Care—The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a rapid shift to eLearning, but aged care providers are now questioning its effectiveness. Are eLearning courses beneficial for nurses and carers? Or are they just another checkbox exercise that takes valuable time away from elder care without delivering sustained skill and knowledge improvements?
Time Away from Care: The Hidden Cost
Australia is currently experiencing a dire nurse shortage. Research by Health Workforce Australia predicts a shortage of 85,000 nurses by 2025 and 123,000 nurses in Australia by 2030. Traditional eLearning modules are mostly “once and done” activities, offering little in terms of long-term knowledge retention. For aged care providers, the costs of such training solutions are unsustainable. Requiring nurses and carers to spend 30 to 60 minutes completing eLearning courses during their shifts is impractical and adds pressure to an already overburdened workforce.
The Real Cost of eLearning
With 64% of residential aged care homes operating at a loss—rising to 78% in rural and regional areas—the sector must question whether their investment in eLearning is improving care quality. In a financially strained landscape with escalating workforce demands, long-winded eLearning courses have become a luxury many providers simply cannot afford.
A newly appointed Training Manager recently shared that a Personal Care Worker joining their organisation is expected to complete twenty eLearning courses during induction. This workload has forced many providers to allocate two, four, or even eight-hour blocks of time for carers and nurses to complete eLearning. Bringing staff in for a half or full day of eLearning is a fast track to disengagement, especially when they’d rather be caring for older Australians.
Additionally, providers often need to backfill shifts with agency staff or pay overtime to cover these training blocks. The operational cost of one hour of eLearning for a residential aged care home with 100 staff starts at $4000. When you factor in the cost of annual eLearning subscriptions and the likelihood that staff will forget 50% to 80% of the material, the return on investment for eLearning becomes hard to justify.
A Cost-Effective, Evidence-Based Alternative
Amid these challenges, an innovative approach is gaining traction: microlearning combined with spaced repetition. This method breaks training into 3 to 5-minute bursts spread over time, offering a more practical and cost-effective solution for the aged care industry. The advantages of microlearning and spaced repetition are substantial. Originating from Harvard Medical School, this evidence-based approach is proven to enhance long-term knowledge retention. In an industry where knowledge retention and the transfer of learning are crucial for maintaining high standards of care and compliance, these benefits cannot be overstated. Additional advantages include reduced training time and costs, increased learner satisfaction, and real-time data and analytics. These features provide actionable insights into workforce knowledge and skill gaps, helping providers make informed decisions about training needs.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Aged Care Workforce Industry Council conducted a pilot project to test microlearning for aged care workers. Feedback from 73 of the 304 active participants was overwhelmingly positive:
The Future of Training in Aged Care
As the aged care sector grapples with regulatory reform and funding challenges, adopting microlearning and spaced repetition may prove to be more than just a cost-effective training solution. It could become a vital lifeline, enabling providers to maintain and improve the quality of care despite severe financial constraints. To truly benefit from this approach, the sector needs learning technology solutions that make microlearning a daily, frictionless habit for carers and nurses—without causing operational disruptions. We need to enable our aged care workforce with solutions, technology and the leadership support to build a continuous learning habit for their own confidence and competence and most importantly for older Australians receiving aged care services.
If you’re interested in getting better return on your training investment, please spare a few minutes to assess whether you’re ready for microlearning stations in your residential aged care home(s).
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